Jealousy
by Kinlor
Summary: Mello is jealous when Matt makes a friend that isn't him.


Disclaimer - don't own Death Note or its characters.**  
**

* * *

**The Beginning**

Mello hated her. Hated her with ever fiber of his being. Any time Matt asked him about it he just spat those words and left it at that. Truth be told, Mello was jealous. Completely and utterly jealous, however, it was against his pride to ever admit to such a thing even to himself.

Matt had always made comments how he liked pretty girls. Mello always brushed it off or snorted at him. The entire time they were growing up Matt would sit flipping through the magazine with the pretty models while Mello studied.

"_Why don't you do something more productive with your time." he would say._  
"_This is productive." Matt would reply, "what, are you jealous or something."  
Silence would fall. _

Now he was jealous. Now he didn't brush it off.

Oh how Mello hated her. From the minute he opened his sore eyes to see her staring down at him. From the minute he heard her voice as she call to Matt to tell him he had woken up. Mello had managed to survive the explosion that had been intended to kill the NPA members and, if necessary, kill him as well. He managed to survive and he called the only person he ever really trusted. However; he felt betrayed now because Matt had this girl with him. She spoke English, but she had an accent that was thick, from somewhere in Russia he assumed. Matt said her name was Julia.

Mello was bed ridden for a while to keep from stressing his burns and to give them time to heal. They were terrible burns but he refused to go to a hospital. They were bad enough to leave horrible scaring that ran from his hairline diagonally across the bridge of his nose to his jaw on the left side of his face. The burns, resulting in scars, went down the left side of his neck, across his left shoulder and the upper most part of his back. Unfortunately, his nerve endings, for the most part, remained unharmed leaving him in excruciating pain. Most of the day he spent in pain or high on illegitimately acquired pain killers. The rest of the day he argued, mostly because he got bored, irritated, restless and, moreover, couldn't keep his temper. He fought with both Matt and Julia. It usually started with her and Matt would come in and attempt to settle the dispute, but ended up a fighting party as well.

Sometimes Matt tried to reason with Mello.

"She's helpful." Matt said in a defeated voice.  
"She is not." Mello spat, not looking up.  
"She took care of you when you were hurt."  
"I didn't ask her too. I called _you_, I didn't call her."  
"Well, I'm sorry if I needed a little help. I'm sorry I was feeling lonely while you were off playing with the 'big boys' and need a little friendly company."  
"I don't like her here."

Matt sighed as he slid off the table and left Mello to his work.  
Mello watched him leave.

Thing only got worse when Mello, no longer bed ridden, got up one night to go to the bathroom and over heard them talking. He crept the corner and watched them. Julia was kissing Matt's cheek over and over again as he sat with his hands in his hair and elbows on his knees. That seething jealousy rose in Mello's chest again. She had her fingers in his hair and her head close to his. Of course Mello never identified any of the feelings with jealousy. He just decided he hated her.

"Reasoning with him doesn't work." Matt was saying in a defeated voice.  
"I'm sorry." She rested her chin on his shoulder.  
"He's the most stubborn bastard." Matt grumbled. "He's always been that way. But it never bothered me because it never really effected me directly." She took the cigarette that dangled loosely between his lips and put it in the ashtray on the table in front of them. She took his hands from his head and kissed him.  
"He's jealous." She said, "that's all Matty." and got up and left him sitting there.

Matt pondered, Mello seethed. She hadn't kissed him out of an attraction. She simply did it because kisses seemed to calm Matt down. Mello returned to bed but did not sleep. After that he ignored them, particularly Julia. He refused to let either of them help him with his burns, and when he finally did, he made it extremely difficult. It was like working with a child.

"I'm not doing this." Julia shrieked, throwing the ointments and bandages to the floor. The cream for his burns went across the floor as she stomped the tube while leaving the room. "I've had enough of your childish behavior, you spoiled brat." She slammed the door to her 'room' behind her.

If Mello hadn't been so pleased with himself he might have been a little unnerved by the edge in her voice. Her accent always made things sounds a little sharper, or a little more dangerous, or a little more passionate.

"Now what have you done?" Matt sighed, trying to dry his hair off with a towel.  
"Nothing." Mello said coolly, propping his feet up on the table in front of him. He looked like the cat who had eaten the canary.  
"You look far too pleased with yourself to have done nothing." Said Matt letting the towel drape around his shoulders as he proceed to the kitchen.  
"Matt?" Mello said.  
"What?" Matt inquired after a moment.  
"If you had to choose-" Matt sighed, "between the two of us, who would you choose to leave?"  
Matt didn't answer immediately. He stared at the glass in his hand that he picked up off the counter. Mello narrowed his eyes at the wall across from him when a few minutes had gone by and Matt had yet to answer  
"Me? You'd choose me to leave." Said Mello. It was a statement not a question. "You'd choose her-"  
"No." Matt interrupted him. "I wouldn't choose you to leave." he said.

He was defeated once again, just like every other time he had a conversation with Mello that involved Julia.

Mello always had to be right. He always had to win or he would throw a tantrum.

**Three Months**

"-then get rid of him! He's not helping. He's just making things harder." Mello was jolted from his sleep by the angry voice rising from the living room. "You're so much smarter than this. You can do this all yourself. He's a spoiled, insolent brat. He hasn't thanked you for coming to help him. He hasn't thanked you for letting him stay here- not that it matters. I'm the one that's paying for this apartment. He doesn't eat anything I make, he constantly harasses me, and throws a tantrum any time something doesn't go his way!"

Her voice was scary, Mello mused, sitting up. He leaned forward opening his door a little more to better hear.

"I can't do that." Matt said after a moment, and Mello smiled to himself. "I've always done what he's told me to."  
"So now you're a dog. You are to come to his every beck and call and do exactly what he says? He says jump, you ask how high?"  
"He's my friend."  
"You're his dog!"

When Matt did not respond, Mello heard the sound of breaking glass followed by a slamming door. Silence came again then knocking. The room was just down the hall now. Mello stood on the other side of his own door looking out. The light from the kitchen cast shadows in the hall and just managed to illuminate Matt's face.

"Julia, it's not like that." he said still knocking on her door. "He's my friend. You don't know him like I do. He seems like a hard ass, but like you said, he's just jealous. Let me talk to him."

Mello didn't hear her say anything in response but he assumed she did because it sounded like Matt was responding to it.

"I know reasoning hasn't worked so far, but please. I've known him basically all my life. He means a lot to me. You were with me when we brought him here. You saw… It hurt… He hurt… he's not really like that. He's just alone… and he feels rejected. Maybe I haven't been trying hard enough with hi-"  
"Get away from my door." Julia said pulling her door open. "I'm going to bed now and I don't need to hear you out here. Go back to the couch, or the floor. Dogs aren't usually allowed on the furniture." she slammed the door again.

Mello's emotions were a little mixed. Matt defended him, but he looked so miserable doing it. He rolled his shoulders, gave a pained groan, and got back in bed. He laid for a while listening to the sound of Matt cleaning up the broken glass, before he heard the television go on and he knew he was playing his video games.

When Mello came out into the main room of the apartment, Matt was leaning over the sink scrubbing burnt eggs from a pan. Mello sat down at the table and ate the food placed at his seat. He drank the tea that was set on the table next to the plate and when Matt sat down across from him he stared at him.

"What is it?" he asked the blonde after a few moments of staring.  
"Food tastes different." The blonde said absently.  
"I'm surprised you have anything to compare it too, you never ate anything she made anyway." he said lighting his cigarette. Mello's features faltered slightly.  
Never _ate_ anything she _made_, past tense.  
"Why aren't you eating?"  
"I already did." Said Matt.  
"Where is she?" Mello asked.  
"I don't know. But what does it matter, you don't really care anyway." Matt said, looking up at him. He took a drag from his cigarette, blowing the smoke out through his nostrils. "I managed to find some new information that might help. They know your name now, that's for sure. I don't know if any of them know your face though. I'm assuming they don't. I have all the information for you when you want to look at it."

Mello heard but didn't answer. He was staring in the direction of Julia's door. It was open, though he couldn't see inside. She never left her door open. Well she might have when it was just her and Matt. Mello narrowed his eyes. The thought made him jealous again.

"Did she leave? Where did she go?" Mello asked nonchalantly.  
"Why? She's gone, isn't that enough for you? Or did you need to find out where she's gone so you can keep bothering her?" Matt didn't mean to sound as angry as he did, or maybe he did. He didn't know where she had gone. "I'm sorry." he added after a moment, "But to answer you're question; yes, she's gone, no I don't know where. Now you'll just to have to get used to my bad cooking." Matt added in an attempt to make a joke. Mello didn't need any kind of reassuring so he knew it was mainly for Matt himself.  
"Did you like her?" he asked.  
"What does it matter? She's only in the way, right? We can't having anything getting in our way. This is by far more important than any of my own personal issues." said the red head, tapping his cigarette against the ashtray to rid it of the ashes that had collected.  
"Yes." Said Mello, "This _is_ far more important." he got up from the table and went about doing his work, the papers that had been left out for him to read. "You didn't write these, did you?" he asked looking up from the couch.  
"No. I just finished the last page. Julia was working on it before she left." Said Matt absently.  
Mello heard him getting up from the table and go into the bathroom. He smiled to himself, looking in the direction of Julia's open door. She had been out of place in Mello's mind. She wasn't needed.

**One Month**

Mello noticed Matt went through several mood change constantly over the first two weeks after Julia's inevitable departure. One day he was angry, the next he was bitter. Sometimes he was quiet, other times overly sarcastic, and sometimes completely apathetic to what was going on or the job he needed to get done. All in all, in the end it simply came down to misery. He was miserable, more so over the fact that Mello refused to listen to him or to get to know Julia than because she had left. He just hated her and for reasons Matt didn't even understand. Every time he asked, Mello just shouted he hated her and stormed out of the room or turned his back to Matt and ignored him the rest of the day.

Matt's own miserable feelings and apathy towards the tasks at hand only made Mello angry, and making Mello angry only made him hate Julia more. She left, so Matt was upset. It was obviously her doing. It was obvious hating her would make things better. After awhile, Matt only played his games in the middle of the night, died ten minutes in and then would turn it off and go to sleep on the couch. Three weeks and suddenly Mello no longer felt irritated or annoyed or angry he was just… upset. He felt guilty? It bothered him that Matt was acting the way he was. Well obviously this was all Julia's fault, wasn't it? She was the one who left. He didn't understand why Matt cared so much about her to begin with but he did.

Irritated, Mello went out.

"He's miserable." she didn't take notice of him. "Did you hear me?"  
"I thought that's what you wanted." She said adjusting the bags in her arms and locking the car doors. "I mean isn't it? Miserably little Matt at your beck and call? Isn't that how you want it to be? Or has he stopped obeying all your orders now as well?"

She shoved the bags into his hands and walked toward the apartment building. Normally Mello would have thrown the bags to the ground and demanded her attention but she knew he wanted to talk and would do nothing to jeopardize the chance. Her shoving the bags at him was a clear indication that he was going to be allowed in.

"So what exactly do expect me to do. It's not my problem any longer._You're_ not my problem any longer." she said taking the bags from him once they were in her apartment. It smelled good. She had something cooking before she left. He watched her for awhile. "Well? I asked you a question. If you don't have anything to say then you can leave."  
"I came to apologize." Mello said expressionlessly.  
"Apologize." she scoffed. "Sure. Tell me, did you smile when you came out into the living room that day and found my room empty. Did it satisfy you ? I bet it did. I can see the grin on your face in my mind. You're not here to apologize." She said. She carried on with putting away her groceries, then checked in the oven. She was cooking something. All the while she ignored Mello's presence.

He watched from where he stood. She looked like any ordinary woman. She wasn't amazingly gorgeous like the woman in the magazine. Well she was, but wasn't. She didn't wear makeup or style her hair. Her beauty was natural.

It was amazing how long he stood there watching her take care of normal chores. He realized that she was the one that did most of the cleaning in their apartment. She did most of the cooking that he had always refused to eat. She brought the flowers that sat on the kitchen table, and washed the clothes and bought the curtains that made the kitchen seem just a little warmer and a little more like home when you were eating breakfast in the morning. She had bought the games that Matt liked to play and the books Mello liked to read. She was the one that gave Matt the feeling that he lived a normal life. That was what is really was about. There was no Kira, there was no orphanage with Roger, there was no L or successor when she was around. There was no stress. He could come home and relax and someone would make him dinner. Mello was always working, always researching, always watching and so Matt was always doing the same. She brought a form of comfort that, no matter how close he and Matt were, they couldn't achieve because they could never find the time.

"I'm sorry." Mello said after a long while. There was a tone in his voice that was unlike any other she'd heard in his voice before. She turned to look at him, over her shoulder from where she stood in the kitchen. "He really is miserable. It's sad."  
"You know he cried." She said turning back around.  
"What?"  
"When he went to find you. I had to come after him because he couldn't do it on his own. You were hurt so badly, and he was so terrified he couldn't help you. Do you know how long you were passed out? We lost track of the days. You woke up several times, but your eyes never focused and it was usually to cry out in pain. I felt so sorry for you and it tortured Matty. I watched you at night while he slept and did the work he couldn't do during the day because he wanted to take care of you." she wasn't looking at him when she spoke, maybe because it brought back sad memories of those months. He watched her dig around in the cabinet above the stove. "Do you want something to drink."  
"Wha- Yeah. Yes." he said.

She had noticed that Mello always drank some kind of tea while Matt drank the coffee. She put the water on the stove and sat at the small kitchen table. She gestured toward the second chair and Mello sat down. He seemed almost uncomfortable, quite the opposite of her. She was rather comfortable. Possibly because it was her turn to sit and scrutinize him. Silence fell between them until she had set the tea down in front of him and sat back down.

"He tried so hard to remain composed as he peeled away your burnt clothes. You smelled horrible. Of burnt flesh, and hair. It was making him sick. But he got you clean and he treated your burns and he washed your skin all with out shedding a tear. It was difficult. He freaked out in the middle of the night. A nightmare I suppose. You're both so... Innocent. Like you never got the chance to properly grow up." she stirred her tea.  
"I tried so hard to quiet him. I told him it would be okay and that you'd make it. We'd take you to a hospital if things went too badly. He cried, and shook, and whimpered. He didn't like that you looked so defeated and helpless because all your life you tried your damnedest to look anything but." she sipped her tea, "That was the first time I kissed him. It wasn't anything deep. It wasn't even on the lips. It was just on his forehead, then his hair and his cheek. The way you would try and calm a crying child, giving them reassuring touches and little squeezes and hugs. It would have been adorable, endearing that he was so affected by it if it hadn't been so sad."  
"How do you-"  
"We talk." she sipped. "You both try so hard to look like you don't want or need any form of affection or feeling of normalcy, but at the end of the day that is all you really want. For each other you were the only source of comfort. You're still so child like in your feelings that you got jealous. Maybe it was because he found attention elsewhere and you had not, or just because you felt his attention was being taken away from you, I don't know."  
Mello hadn't realized it, but she had been staring at him the entire time she spoke. He was hunched forward in his chair with disheveled blonde hair in his eyes.  
"Matt cried for me?"  
"Matt cried for you." she assured him.  
"Do you care about Matt?" He looked up at her.  
"I do." she said after a moment of quiet staring. "Does that upset you."

He shook his head and turned his gaze elsewhere. It just made him jealous again. It almost seemed like no one else cared about him. But he knew Matt did. He supposed if he hadn't have acted like such a bastard things would have turned out a little differently. Matt would be happy and talking to him in full sentences instead of a few syllables.

"You were close growing up? He must really care about you to put up with you the way he does. You're jealous and controlling. But, then again, here you are to tell me just how miserable you, not I, made him. Tell me, did you bother to ask him at all about his feeling? Did you bother to sit down and ask him any questions or openly express why you're so angry, or did you just yell at him and tell him how much you hate me?" she asked resting her chin against her wrist.  
"I-hrnn." he gritted his teeth and turned his gaze to the table top.  
"Are you hungry?" She asked after watching him for a long silent moment. He opened his mouth to say no, but realized he was. He hadn't eaten anything that day because Matt hadn't made anything.  
"Yes." he said quietly.  
"Would you like something to eat, or would you just waste that as well?" he deserved that.  
"I'll eat it." he said.

**Four Hours**

"Matt?"  
"Hmm? Yeah?" he looked up from the laptop in front of him as Mello came into the kitchen.  
"This is for you." he set down what looked like two Tupperware containers on the table.  
"What is it." he leaned forward picking up the top one and opening it. "Actual food… where did you go?"  
"I went to see Julia." Said Mello, sitting down. Matt stared at him. "It's not like that. I didn't go to bother her. Well I guess– I don't know why I went to see her. At first I was mad because you were so miserable and I was blaming her so I went to see her."  
"And?"  
"She just ended up making me feel bad." said Mello, folding his arms on the table. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make things so hard for you. I mean, I didn't know they had been so hard for you. I've been really inconsiderate of you and your feelings. I was jealous. I thought you were forgetting about me for her. You cried for me and I was a bastard."  
"S-she told you that." said Matt scratching his nose as if he were embarrassed. He watched Mello nod. Now it was the blonde's turn to look utterly miserable. The red head wondered just what Julia said to make him act this way.  
"I always just wanted to hate her so badly that I never saw the good that her presence brought. I never saw what she did. I never bother to ask you about her, or where you met her, or why you liked her, or why she was here. I just wanted to hate her. I just wanted her to leave, but you got so miserable and I hated it. It made me hate her more because I felt it was her fault."  
"What did she say?"  
"She said I was childish and jealous and that she felt sorry for me." he said staring at the table top, "She told me how you took care of me, or tried too and how it made you sick. She had to take care of me at night and you woke up because of nightmares. She told me that when I was awake I wasn't really awake and I was always in pain… She cares about you and calls you Matty."  
"You used to call me Matty." Matt said, watching the blonde resting his head on his arms. "When we were little. You always called me Matty. When you weren't trying to look tough and mean that is."  
"Code names even back then." Mello said under his breath.  
"You look tired, Mello." Matt said getting up. "Why don't you go rest. We can always talk when you get up." the red head, mussed Mello's blonde hair with his hand before going into the bathroom.  
Mello smiled for a moment, without realizing it, before doing as Matt had suggested.

He laid on the bed for awhile, staring at the wall as he rested his head on his folded arms. He had severely underestimated Julia. She had taken care of a majority of things while he had been injured and Matt spent all his time trying to the best of his ability to take care of him. He could see the difference in the work that was done, particularly the written work. He assumed that most of the computer work she knew how to do she originally learned from Matt and through her own skill developed further. She had also turned out to be very keen and observant. And though she still carried a woman's anger, she was understanding toward Mello when he had gone to see her. He couldn't say he'd have been like that. For a moment he wonder what it was like to have her touch his hair. He assumed it was different than when Matt did it. He shook his head. He only had that thought because he remembered Julia doing it to Matt. He yawned and shifted. His body was sore and the skin was tight on his burns. He let out a long low sigh before letting himself fall to sleep.

**One Hour**

When Mello woke up there was a hand moving through his hair. He squeezed his eyes closed as a pain shot through the upper part of his back. Without being able to control himself, he yelped when a warm hand pressed against the skin of his back. When compared to the heat radiating from his skin, the hand actually felt cool and seemed to alleviate some of the pain. He whimpered involuntarily.

"Shhh." he opened his eyes and turned his head.  
"J-Julia?"  
"Your bandages weren't wrapped properly and you seem to have torn some of the skin around the healing wounds on your back." She tucked her hair behind her ear as she took a soft wet cloth to his back. She cleaned the wounds, treated the burns and had him sit up so she could properly wrap his bandages. "I'll get Matt." She said getting up from the bed to let him lay back down.

The bed shift again when Matt sat down. He put his hand on Mello's head and it was different than when Julia did it, but it was just as comforting. Matt rubbed the top of the blonde's head. He felt like a child again. When he got sick Matt sat on his bed and rubbed his head. Mello could never handle being weak very well. He always hated it, and being stuck in bed was definitely one of those weak moments. He didn't like people to see him looking so defenseless. But it was always okay when it was Matt, because he was his best friend. And just like before his best friend was there to make him feel better. Matt's fingers stroking his hair was slowly lolling him back to sleep.

When he woke up again, he felt the weight of Matt's hand still on his head, though the redhead had fallen asleep sitting next to him. He laid still with his forehead resting across his folded arms. He could hear the television, volume low, out in the living room. Then he heard the water running in the kitchen. He was sure it was Julia. There was a faint smell in the air that was definitely all her own and strangely he hadn't noticed it until now. Though; just as strangely he could remember when this smell, despite not noticing it before, had gone from the apartment after she left. When the faint smell of men and unclean clothes was in the air.

Mello heard her walking around. He heard the front door open and close. He wanted to get up and see if she had gone but he did not want to chance moving. But after a few minutes he heard the door open and close again and he knew she had come back. Silence fell again except for the muffled sound of the television. Then he heard her foot steps in the hall and finally in the room.

"How's your back?" She asked after a few minutes of silence. She set something on the foot of his bed. "Matt thinks you should go to the hospital." She said quietly so as not to wake Matt.  
"No, I'm alright." he said after a moment.  
"If you think so." She said after another few minutes of silence before leaving the room  
"Wait." He sat up quickly. He winced, realizing, afterward, that it had been a bad idea.  
"What is it?" She said coming back to the door. His eyes were transfixed on the clothes piled at the end of his bed.  
"Did you wash my clothes?" he asked.  
"What? Is that what you wanted to ask me?"  
"Yes- well no. What are you doing here?" it came out much harsher than he had intended too. Julia was glaring at him. "I didn't mean it to sound like that."

He put his hands on his head and shook his hair. He stared at her and saw the laundry basket on the floor in the hall. He wasn't even aware they had a laundry basket. Though he tried to stay neat and composed, it usually went as far as just putting his clothes in one pile in the corner of his currently occupied room, as opposed to Matt's who tended to toss his clothes where ever an open spot was available.

"Did Matt call you?" He asked.  
"No." she said. "You bled on my chair when you took off your jacket at dinner. When I realized it I came to see if you got home okay." she said, eyes narrowed, but she was no longer glaring.

A faint blush turned Mello's face a light pink. He stared down at his hands. Had she come here because she was worried about him? Or did she do it because she knew that if anything happened to him Matt would be upset. He was jealous again, and a little upset at the idea that she would only make sure he was okay out of concern for Matt.

"You're over analyzing it. You're making yourself angry." she said watching the expressions that crossed his face. "I got worried. I came to see if you were okay. Don't give yourself an aneurysm. You make yourself jealous, you realize this. Then you push all your anger and frustration on the ones you're jealous of just because you over analyzed something." She turned, picked up the clothes basket and went back down the hallway.  
"Hrnn." Mello turned his head to see Matt yawning and stretching his arms over his head. "Mello." he watched a smile grace the redhead's lips before turning around and hugging him. "Ah, are you okay?"  
"Why do I keep making myself angry." The blonde muttered into Matt's shirt. "I keep over analyzing everything and looking at the negative side of it and I just keep making myself angry at everyone around me. Then they hate me, and I'm back to being angry all over again. Angry and alone and miserable."  
"W-what are you talking about?" Matt asked, holding Mello back from him. This was highly uncharacteristic of the blonde. He hadn't done this in nearly six years. Mello took in a deep breath and sat back from Matt.  
"Julia. I keep getting angry at the idea that she's only here for you, then I end up scrutinizing her or yelling or saying something wrong and it makes her mad."  
"Yeah. Yeah," said Matt, "you do. She did a lot for you and you were too busy focusing on how nice she was to me to even realize it." Mello didn't respond right away. "She took care of you most of the time you were unconscious. She helped me when I was trying to take care of you. She cooked and cleaned for us as well as did work I couldn't get done because I need to start something else. She even called me to see if you got home alright tonight. Then came here to check your back. She thinks you should go to the hospital-"  
"Wait, she said you thought I should go to the hospital." Mello interrupted.  
"No, I told her you hated hospitals. She said your back shouldn't be that bad and that she felt you should go to the hospital."

Mello's face turned a darker shade of pink than before.

"If you must know, I made friends with her in the beginning because she made me think so much of you. She read all the same books you had, and she was clever and observant, and she was eating a giant chocolate bar when I had met her." Said Matt. "I mean sure, she had a lot of qualities different than yours which are appealing, but still-" he paused when he saw the pile of clothes at the foot of Mello's bed. "Who did laundry?"  
"Julia."  
"She's still here?" He sniffed at the air. "is she cooking?" Matt got up off the bed and went out into the living room. "What are you making at-" he looked at his watch "eleven thirty at night?"  
"I was making real food for you so you could keep it in the fridge and heat it up later." she said without looking up, she was folding a pile of Matt's shirts on the coffee table.  
"Stop." He said, "What are you doing?" She looked at him as if he were an idiot.  
"I'm sure this is called folding laundry." she said.  
"I know that, I mean why are you doing it?"  
"Because obviously you aren't. Mello only had a few shirts left and you- it smells- have been wearing dirty shirts according to how long it's been since they've last been washed."  
"Okay, but you've washed _all_ our laundry." Matt said, pointing his finger around the apartment, "And that wasn't just shirts. That's socks, pants-"  
"Underwear, boxers, yes. What is your point?" she asked, "I doubt you have any clean ones left. What are you wearing right now." Matt's face turned a brilliant red.  
"Nothing." he said after a moment of silent staring.  
"I didn't think so." she said going back to folding.  
"How can you tell the difference between whose is whose?" he asked skeptically.  
"I know." she said with out look at him.

Mello, who had been standing in the hallway just outside the living room watching, went back to his room and going through the pile of clothes realized, yes, she washed everything, and yes it was all his. His face turned a tad red at the idea of her washing all of his clothes. He went back out, this time into the living room, to her telling Matt that as far as socks went the two of them would have to go through those on their own. He watched her get up from the couch and return to the kitchen. It did smell good. He and Matt watched her make her way around the kitchen, washing off dishes and opening the fridge to stick another container full of food in it. There was in fact quite a bit in there now. Even had Mello been expecting her to show up he wouldn't have expected it to be to cook them food, clean their apartment and do their laundry. They both snapped from their trance as she picked up her coat from the back of the couch and began putting it on.

"There's enough in there that you should be able to eat a decent dinner at least for a while. You should also have clean clothes for awhile, I washed everything and I mean_ everything_ as you pointed out. I don't clean bathrooms so that's all up to you two, but I managed to clean up the rest of this place. Matt, I put your clothes in the other bedroom even though it appears you are still sleeping on the couch." She stood in front of them, pulling her hair out from under her coat, fixing the collar.  
"This isn't going to be a common occurrence. I have no intention on coming back and doing this again. And Mello," she said putting her gloves on, "you should see a doctor about your burns, particularly on your back. Neither Matt nor I are doctors so it might be a good idea to get checked out by one." She stared at them for a moment. The silence between them was almost unbearable. "Well. Take care of yourselves."

She left.

**A Year**

"Mail's here." said Matt, dropping onto the couch.  
That only meant one thing. They didn't have mail sent to their apartment, they went to pick it up, so any time they got a letter at the apartment it was usually from Julia. She had it sent to one of the people in the apartment building and had them put it in the mail box of Matt and Mello's apartment.  
"It's just a post card this time."  
"Where is she at now?" Mello asked.

When Julia left, she really left. She was coming between Matt and Mello's friendship, which made Mello angry, and Matt miserable. But she worried about them and knew Matt would worry in return, so she sent them letters and post cards with an address to wear they could send a letter and she would pick it up there if they chose too. She usually visited several different places between letters so the sending address was never a definite for where she was going to be. Sometimes it was the town she stayed in or one she was just passing through.

"This time she went to Germany." said Matt, "The next address is in Russia."  
"Going to visit family?"  
"They're dead." Said Matt quietly.

Mello didn't reply. Every day he had learned something new about Julia from Matt. They had talked more than he thought. Probably more than he and Matt ever had. But that was one of the qualities that she had that Mello didn't. Liking to talk and listen. But Mello tried since then. He was more open now and he asked Matt questions and listened to him. He even tried to play Matt's games, and in turn Matt tried to read some of his books. Matt had told him that he would have a great time talking to Julia about the books. She had read them all, she had in fact been the one who bought them.

"I'll send her a letter. Telling her we can't wait to see her again?" Matt said grinning at Mello.  
"Yeah," Said Mello, "That would be nice?"

_That_ would_ be nice._

* * *

_well it's been a very long time since I've done anything and even longer since I've posted something._

_So, here it is._

_I don't know if second/third-degree burns can work that way, so just go with it. _

_R&R, please.  
_

_ kthanx_

_-Aman _


End file.
